Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 109477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
“How’d that come about?” Jack continued, turning in his seat to look back at her. “Clearly that ol’ fae has seen a softer side of you than we have.”
“Or maybe you guys are much softer than that ol’ fae,” she clapped back.
“Nah, that can’t be it,” Jack said. Jerry shifted uncomfortably. “That one can read thoughts, right?”
“Yeah,” Donovan answered, his eyes crinkling as they appeared in the rearview mirror, looking at her. “What do you think, Jack? Reckon our little gremlin is actually thinking lovely, gushy things about us all the time? Think she has a mushy middle and big heart?”
“I think that ol’ fae doesn’t know her very well if he’s calling her a fragile sort of useless bird,” Jerry murmured as he looked out the window at the dark night. “If he insists on calling her a dove, he deserves to have his eyes pecked out.”
The SUV went quiet for a beat before Donovan and Jack started laughing.
“What are you trying to say, Jerry?” Jack said. “That you don’t think the gremlin is actually a nice person underneath that hard exterior?”
“Yeah, Jerry,” Donovan intoned. “It’s not nice to say that you think the gremlin is just as hardhearted on the inside as she seems on the outside.”
Daisy couldn’t help laughing. In truth, she had no idea why he called her a dove. He certainly did think she was fragile, and yes, he deserved to have his eyes pecked out for it.
Heavy clouds blocked out the glow of the moon. Thick sheets of fog drifted around the road. Only their parking lights lit the way, not needed for much more than keeping off the wall of fog to their left and right. Near what must’ve been their destination, they slowed to a crawl and turned off the road onto a bumpy field.
Jerry clicked off his seatbelt. Jack and Donovan did the same, their humor having dried up in anticipation of the job to come.
“Hey.” Jack turned in his seat to look Daisy directly in the eye. She could barely see him within the faint glow of the dash. “Stay safe out there, okay? If you see or sense danger, you get the hell out of there. You let us handle it.”
“It’s not me the fae will kill, Jack,” she returned. “You get out of there. Let him have me. I’ll have time to get away from him. You won’t.”
Jack’s jaw clenched. Donovan’s eyes flicked up to the rearview as the SUV bobbed and swayed, bouncing them around on the rough dirt.
“This is not the time to be stubborn, Daisy,” Jack said. “Do what your elders say.”
She held his gaze, saw the stubbornness looking back at her, then subtly twitched her head. Sure, why not? Obviously she wouldn’t run while her family was in trouble, as he well knew, but they could all pretend. It would move things along much quicker.
He gave her a stiff nod and faced forward again as Donovan turned the wheel to follow the others in a semicircle. She still couldn’t see through the fog out the windows. Kieran was laying it on thick.
In a few minutes, the SUV in front of them stopped. Donovan parked right behind, and then they all stepped out into the chilly night air. Donovan handed her a small flashlight as the fog peeled away from the backside of the barn.
“Hey.” Mordecai stepped to her side, in a frilly purple robe that he would shed when things got rolling.
“Hey,” she responded, keeping the light off for now. She didn’t need it with the others getting organized, theirs shining at the ground.
Lexi joined them a moment later. Her gaze was fierce. “If that fae shows up,” she said, “you will run. Do you hear me? Let Kieran and me handle him. Together we will have more power than he does—than one of their Celestials, or so Zorn thinks. Okay? This isn’t just your fight this time. This is our fight. We’re a family. We fight together. Remember how many times you’ve told me that? Remember every fight you refused to leave because of that reason? Well, here we are. Family sticks together.”
“Then why would I run?” Daisy quirked a brow, then nearly laughed when the glower lowered Lexi’s eyebrows. “Okay, okay, I hear you. I’ll let you handle it.”
She was being honest. Lexi had made a good point. The fae had said that a Celestial nearly had the power of one of her gods. If that fae was scared of Celestials, he had less power than they did. Lexi and Kieran, not to mention the rest of them, really oughta be able to handle him.
Lexi nodded at Daisy, looked over at Mordecai, whom she also hated engaging in these things, and walked toward the barn. The others assembled behind her, except for Bria, who had opened the doors on one of the vans and was quietly pulling tarps off her pile of dead bodies. She’d animate them, or Lexi would, if something happened.